Fiddle

kevinc@herald-mail.com Assembling a community concert schedule is never easy. Some acts look good on paper, but one viewing of a tape and they get the hook. Others burst forth with infectious energy. Color April Verch in the latter group, a fact Jane Guyton and the rest of the Hagerstown Community Concert Association talent selection committee discovered when compiling their current season. "The key is it was well-done," says Guyton, talent selection committee chair.

bonnieb@herald-mail.com MERCERSBURG, Pa. - None of the Knuckle Dusters is old enough to remember when jazz and swing were in their heyday, but their renditions of 1940s tunes bring pleasure to those who remember that era in popular music. The five-member band will stroll the halls of the Veteran's Affairs Medical Center in Martinsburg, W.Va., Monday evening playing "traditional, old-time music, country, blues, folk," said lead guitarist and mandolin player Tim Mitchell, 43, of Hagerstown.

Nate Blanton fingers his Scottish smallpipes instrument as Elke Baker, playing a Scottish fiddle, leads a class of pipers and fiddlers Saturday at the Upper Potomac Pipers Weekend held at Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, W.Va.

HARPERS FERRY, W.VA. - Ann Cann encouraged those gathered Saturday for the third Upper Potomac Fiddle Retreat in Harpers Ferry to get in touch with their "inner dork. " Fellow fiddle teacher Joe Herrmann joked that he named his miniclass "Applied Fiddle Theory" hoping no one would sign up for it. Musician Chance McCoy described the weekend of bow flexing that continues through today at the Hilltop House Hotel as an opportunity to get together with "a bunch of geeks" who enjoy the sounds of a stringed instrument often relegated to back porches and kitchens.

If fate had different plans for Elke Baker, today she would be pouring over chemical equations, not sheet music. This weekend, Baker will be a featured performer and teacher at the Upper Potomac Fiddle Retreat in Shepherdstown. The three-day event kicks off Friday night with a concert, followed by two days of workshops and jam sessions. Baker said she was introduced to the violin when she was 7 years old through a school music program. She doesn't know what drew her to the violin, but she said, “at that age it was a matter of thinking it was fun or interesting.” Baker, 42, continued to balance music and academic studies in high school, but when it came time to select a major in college, she decided on biochemistry.

And the Oscar goes to Wanna win $100? Check out the announcement for The Herald-Mail's sixth annual Oscar contest today. Fair is foul and foul is fair Don't say his name, but Maryland Shakespeare Festival presents "MacBeth" at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays through Sunday, Feb. 15. Yeah, yeah, yeah Relive the cultural phenomenon known as The Beatles as the Weinberg Center for the...

The Irish Session Lads will be in concert Friday, Nov. 16, at 8 p.m. at Shepherdstown Presbyterian Church. Cleek Schrey anchors the band with fiddle and piano accompaniment, Sean McComiskey drives the rhythm with the button accordion and Stuart Jackson plays the Irish uilleann pipes. Tickets cost $18 for adults, $15 for seniors, $12 for members and $8 for children/students. Shepherd University students get in free with their Rambler ID.   For more information, call 304-263-2531 or go to http://smad.us/concerts .

A 12-year-old fiddle player stole the show Friday night at the Secrest Memorial Sing at Heritage Academy. Hanna Livingston, a seventh grader from Frostburg, Md., was a last-minute addition to the New Year’s Eve program, an annual gospel and bluegrass concert that has been an area tradition since 1980, said Carolyn Everitts, one of the organizers. Accompanied by the Guilford Station Bluegrass Band, Hanna earned a standing ovation after fiddling her way through embellished versions of “Amazing Grace” and “Softly and Tenderly,” then wowing the audience with faster songs like “Orange Blossom Special” and “Back Up and Push.

HARPERS FERRY, W.Va. - It will be a study in collaborations at Celtic Fiddle & Feet, a weekend workshop of music and dance. Workshops, primarily for musicians and dancers, are scheduled Friday, Nov. 16, through Sunday, Nov. 18, at Hilltop House Hotel. A free jam session and dance is scheduled for Friday night at the hotel. A concert is scheduled for Saturday at Harpers Ferry Middle School auditorium. The concert flow Saturday will be akin to scrambling squares on a Rubik's Cube - the individual artists will play together in some form or another, said organizer Joanie Blanton.

1. 'Harvey' opens The story of Elwood P. Dowd's friendship with an invisible, giant, white rabbit opens Friday, Sept. 7, and runs most weekends through Oct. 13, at Washington County Playhouse, 44 N. Potomac St., rear, Hagerstown. Tickets cost $29 to $42. Call 301-739-7469. Go to www.wcpdt.com . 2. Three artists open show “New Wave: Paintings” by Sam Dalious, Luke Jones and Kelly Neibert will be on display. Meet-the-artists reception, 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Friday, Sept.